Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a plant that will almost never wow. It builds up slowly but inevitably to about six feet high and about eight feet across. The process can take seven years. During this time it is rarely troubled by insects or diseases. It doles out flowers during the growing season in a somewhat parsimonious manner, but they are always subtly lovely. The color is a magenta-tinged dark red, almost always lovely (at least in coolish summer areas where the petals do not dry out), but rarely stunning. It's a rose I cannot imagine doing without in the garden, but any garden that would depend solely on it for color would be a very somber one, indeed.

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